mark skinner

Rex , I love the swelling guitars. I especially liked the drums when they first came in and the pattern they were playing. I think it was the timing of the snare that really got me when it came in. I agree with Andy about some of the sweeping guitar panning. Sounds good but a little rushed at times. I'm on the fence about how wide some of the vocal harmony's are. I watched one of your videos where you were cleaning up a "massive" amount of vocal takes and organizing them. I noticed that a lot of the harmony's and doubles were panned hard L/R. You usually achieve a Great "wide" mix , especially with the big swelling harmony sections . I'm just wondering if quieter sections would sound better with narrower vocal panning ?? I'm never sure of anything until I start twisting knobs. Fantastic start on another Great one . Loved it .. mark

Do you use "clean audio folder" in your projects ? The folders can fill up quite quickly (with unused audio) if you use "undo" as much as I do while tracking , or deleting sections during a mixdown. My audio track counts are normally pretty low , but I've seen my audio folders be up to several gigs. mark

Larry , I Really liked the suspended and Maj7th sounding chords. They're normally pretty sweet on an acoustic. Nice harp as well. I do believe a different bass instrument would add a lot to the song. I believe a deeper , fatter bass sound would get along nicer with the other instruments. Nice work .. mark

Wookie , Wonderful job on such touchy and serious subject matter. Nice guitar work , I thought the double leads were a nice touch. One thing that really stood out to me was the opening keys intro. Hearing the chords I immediately heard "I get by with a little help from my friends" and the line stuck with me thru the whole song. Intentional or not it was like a subliminal message got thru. Nice work .. mark

Dave , Cool ! I Loved the bass line against the simple drum track. I'd love to be able to play that way on a actual bass guitar. Great job , I Really liked the feel of this one. Nice resurrection. mark

Philip, I agree , laid back and smooth. There are a few squeaks I would remove but , I think I would leave the majority of them in (maybe just tamed a little). I've been listening to a lot of "Train" lately and I think they're "boosting" the string squeaks on a few of their slower songs. If done well I think it adds to the live feel of a performance. The only thing I would suggest is maybe changing the 2 and 4 to more of a snare sound when you hit around the 2:04 mark giving the drums a little more variety with a small power boost. Very Nice song and performance. Enjoyed it .. mark

I use Ozone "elements" on everything I create . I'm using a win 7 pc with an i5 , SSD , 16g ram and it works flawlessly . It's a good place to start and you can always upgrade Ozone at any time. Well worth it for the mastering stage process alone. mark

Yeah , that was one thing I Really noticed about how McCartney played bass. It was more like how you would play a 6 string , using a lot of chord passages. I've seen clips of him actually looking like he was strumming a regular guitar. I once mentioned that to my old bass player and he replied , "I can't think that way" and couldn't make the gelling connection between the instruments, and I can't either .. ms

Beautiful ambiance. I can't believe the "width" you achieve in your mixes. Nice .. mark

Clean and crisp. It's almost surround sounding . I really liked the lows coming in around the 2 min. mark and at the outro. Yeah , melody line on top of it would be nice. I enjoyed the Great mix .. mark

Dave , pretty Cool ! I believe pasting the bass track under the solo piano section would help it a good bit. There are also a few piano notes that could use some timing editing in that section .. I hope you recover fully . It will probably take longer than you want , but it'll happen. Ironically I did the same thing with a "hand saw". I knew it was happening but couldn't stop in time. I know a "killer" guitarist that cut his index , ring and pinky finger "off" at the first knuckle on his fretting hand. He can hold his hand straight up and give you the finger (and he does it often). He's still a Fantastic lead player in his band and also does solo acoustic gigs. He Never gave up or let it get him down. I Enjoyed the track .. mark

Maybe a few of us could come to "your place" for a few days and see if our laptops will work there .. ms

Hi Bruce , Thanks for getting back. I did take a wide low mid band suggestion from Ozone and transferred it to the mix instead. I may have missed the boost on it a little but I don't think so , I'll have to check. I wrote down all the EQ settings before remixing. Other than that I did boost the volume slightly on a far left "high strung" acoustic that I used instead of a 12 string. Other than that lows were boosted on the drum bus. I believe if there's a warmth problem It'll be an easy fix. Every move effects something else .. I'll keep digging. EDIT : @noynekker I'm editing this without bumping it up. I found a 0.5 8k HS boost that wasn't in the last mix. It was enough to thin it out especially near the fade out using the wah and bridge pickup. I'll repost it later, cable co. is coming to rework cable lines on my street. Nice catch , your attention to detail is Amazing ! Thanks .. mark

Peter , Nice cover! Excellent job with the guitars , I especially liked the organ when it came in. I'd probably paste it in another time or two somewhere with different panning. I Really liked the laid back feel of the vocals early in the song. Enjoyed it .. mark

Yes , Welcome to the forum. That was cool and Yes , Very different. It made my motocross knee start hurting again.. I can't wait to hear what else you do with guitars. mark

Hello , here's a Remix per your suggestions and multiple listens on my part. (The link at the top now reflects the remix.)

@Dream Art Scientists @Lynn Wilson @Riff Richards @noynekker , Thanks so much for the listen and Great comments! @Wookiee @jwnicholson78 I've done a remix but waiting until I'm really sure of it before posting. The kick , snare and drum bus eq were adjusted. I think it sounds a lot better. @Old Joad @Bajan Blue The rough Havens like vocals were the result of singing the song over a couple of days starting each session at 4:30 am. I spent a good bit of time during the remix trying to bring up the trailing end of words and passages. @garybrun once suggested I ride the vocal fader during mixing to bring up the tails where I usually loose power . It was real apparent on this one. Thanks to Everyone ! I'll post a remix soon. mark

Bajan , Excellent ! I absolutely Love the new sound. I hope Grant works out well , he has a fantastic voice and nice delivery. I believe you've gotten the right combination of players to produce the sound I've been missing for awhile .. I I Really enjoyed the performance and the video. mark

Cool track ! I really expected an all synth production but got a bonus with the guitars and bass. I liked the tension you brought out with the Indian/Arabic sounding runs. Enjoyed it .. mark

@User 905133 Thanks for the like and the comments. I would have kept it closer to the original , if I could have played the notes. Being mainly an acoustic player if haven't spent enough time with electric leads and especially deep note bending. @antler I appreciate the comment and suggestions. I got the same feeling about the drums after running it thru Ozone but , being so close to the mix I was unsure of myself. That's why I Really need more ears on a mix. Thanks. @Old Joad I Really appreciate that. I have always been a Richie Havens fan and that's pretty much how I did the song playing in an acoustic trio. @DeeringAmps Thanks' I always value your opinion. I'll revisit my volume automation. There are few spots I also think could use some boosting and a little more impact. Thanks guys .. mark

I thought I'd try an easy Hendrix song while waiting on inspiration for an original. It turned out to be a Lot more of a challenge than I had anticipated. I adlibbed the leads but tried to hit some of the high points. Any advice on the mix would be Greatly appreciated. Thank You .. mark This is a REMIX Thanks for your help ! mark

Are you using an interface with "direct monitoring" turned on ?

Lynn , I knew I would Really like this from the very first opening notes. The percussion instruments were Very nice including the bass , sounding somewhat like a tabla drum. Cool ! I have a rack mount TC Helicon Voice Works that can generate 4 nice harmony's and it's a "blast" to sing thru. It's a pain to set up and I only use it for special effects once in a blue moon. The main thing I've found is that it's Real easy to overuse. I learned to copy the main centered vocal and process it a little differently than the stereo track containing the main and all the harmony's. This really helps tame the phasing sound a lot of harmony generators can introduce. Great song and production , I Really enjoyed it .. mark

Fantastic song! Your musical talents Really shined thru on this song. Properly mixed and mastered this would be Steller ! Welcome to the forum. Enjoyed it .. mark

Congrats Keith ! Your song fit in Nicely on the program. (took a while to find it) 1:32:38. That's a very cool concept for a radio station to do . I think you got the mix sounding Great on the song. Enjoyed it .. mark